Nazi Conspiracy & AggressionIndividual
Responsibility Of Defendants

Walter Funk

(Part 4 of 9)

[Page 721]

C. FUNK, AS MINISTER OF ECONOMICS, CONTINUED TO ADVANCE THE
CONSPIRACY TO PERSECUTE THE JEWS BY ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING
IN THE PLANNING AND EXECUTION OF THE MEASURES WHICH
ELIMINATED THE JEWS FROM THE GERMAN ECONOMY.

The systematic anti-Jewish program of the Nazi conspirators
is discussed in Chapter XII. The evidence discussed below
shows that Funk, by virtue of his activities as Minister of
Economics, is responsible for the planning and execution of
the program to exclude the Jews from the German economy.

The first record of Funk's anti-Jewish activities as
Minister of Economics consists of a series of decrees which
he signed and which were designed to exclude the Jews from
various occupations, such as real estate business,
auctioneering, etc. Reference will be made to only a few of
these decrees (Decree amending trade code of 6 July 1938,
1988 Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 832; de-

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cree concerning occupation of auctioneers, 12 February 1938,
1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, I p. 202). Moreover, on 14 June 1938
Funk signed a decree providing for the registration of
'Jewish enterprises" (1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 627).
This decree was part of a system of economic persecution
which obliterated Jewish ownership in all commercial,
financial and industrial

In 1938, the death of von Rath in Paris was exploited by the
Nazis as a pretext for intensifying the persecution of the
Jews. Their new anti-Jewish policy called for the complete
elimination of Jews from the economic life of Germany. Funk
took a significant part in both the formulation and
execution of this policy.

Thus, he was present at the meeting of 12 November 1938,
where, with Goering as the leading spirit, the basis for a
more drastic policy against the Jews was established (1816-PS).
Goering described the meeting as a decisive one, and
demanded "that the Jewish question be now, once and for all,
coordinated and solved, one way or another." (1816-PS). Funk
came to the meeting with a draft law which he had prepared,
and which he submitted with the following explanation:

"I have prepared a law elaborating that, effective 1
January 1939, Jews shall be prohibited to operate
retail stores and wholesale establishments, as well as
independent artisan shops. They shall further be
prohibited from keeping employees or offering any ready
products on the market. Wherever a Jewish shop is
operated, the police shall shut it down. From 1 January
1939, a Jew can no longer be employed as an
enterpriser, as stipulated in the law for the
Organization of National Labor from 20 January 1934.
If a Jew holds a leading position in an establishment
without being the enterpriser, his contract may be
declared void within 6 weeks by the enterpriser. With
the expiration of the contract, all claims of the
employee, including all claims to maintenance become
obliterated. That is always very disagreeable and a
great danger. A Jew cannot be a member of a
corporation; Jewish members of corporations shall have
to be retired by 31 December /1939. A special
authorization is unnecessary. The competent Ministers
of the Reich are being authorized to issue the
provision necessary for the execution of this law."
(1816-PS)

The substance of Funk's draft law promptly found its way
into the Reichsgesetzblatt. On 12 November 1938, Goering
signed a

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decree entitled "For the Elimination of Jews from the German
Economic Life" (1662-PS)

An examination of the provisions of the decree will reveal
how well it deserved its title. Thus, Jews were forbidden to
operate retail stores or mail order houses, or to engage
independently in any handicraft, to offer goods or services
at markets, or to take orders therefor (Section I): or to be
"leaders" of any industrial enterprise. That decree also
provided that any Jew in an executive position of an
industrial enterprise was subject to notice of dismissal
(Section 2), and that Jews should be excluded from
membership in cooperative organizations (Section 3). Funk
was expressly authorized in Section 4 of the decree to issue
the regulations necessary for implementing its provisions
(1662-PS).

Funk was also authorized to issue the regulations in
connection with another anti-Jewish decree, also issued on
12 November 1938. This decree provided that all damage done
to Jewish enterprises and apartments during the riots of 8,
9, and 10 November, was to be repaired by the Jewish owners
out of their own pockets, and that claims by German Jews
against insurance companies were to be confiscated in favor
of the German Government (1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 1581).

Soon after the passage of the decree of 12 November, Funk,
in a speech which he delivered on the Jewish question, made
it clear that the program of economic persecution was a part
of the larger program of extermination and boasted of the
fact that the new -program insured the complete elimination
of the Jews from the German economy. In the course of this
speech, Funk stated:

"The state and the economy constitute a unity. They
must be directed according to the same principles. The
best proof thereof has been rendered by the most recent
development of the Jewish problem in Germany. One
cannot exclude the Jews from the political life, but
let them live and work in the economic sphere. The fact
that the last violent explosion of the disgust of the
German people, because of a criminal Jewish attack
against the German people, took place at a time when we
were standing just before the termination of the
economic measures for the elimination of the Jews from
the German economythis fact is a result of the other
fact that in the last years we had not handled this
problem sufficiently early and consistently. In any
event, the basis of a complete elimination of the Jews
also from the economy had already been laid by the
decrees of the Commissioner for the Four Year Plan,
General Field Marshal Goering, who was the first

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to undertake the solution of this problem. In the
meantime by means of Aryanization, performed under
governmental supervision, the Jews had already been
excluded completely from the stock exchanges and the
banks and almost completely from the large businesses
and all important industrial enterprises. According to
estimates, of the net property of approximately 7
billion marks, determined pursuant to the decree for
the registration of Jewish property, 2 billion marks
have already been transferred into German possession."
(3545-PS).

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